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Jaime Nash is a one-of-a-kind member of the Undertone team. As Director of Creative and Technology, she sits at the intersection between the Sales and Product teams, ensuring the new formats and solutions we bring to market are meeting the needs of our clients, following market trends, and helping brands make better connections to consumers. She also tours the country with our sales team, leading sessions on best practices and creative strategy to educate and empower our clients.

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Jaime Nash, Director of Creative Strategy and Samantha Lopez, Director of Strategic Marketing and Planning, discuss some of the best ways to increase engagement in these essential consumer generations of today.

Marketers and advertisers are constantly trying to find new ways to cater creative to the Millennial and Gen Z generations. These generations are far different than those of years past—they’re the most technologically savvy consumers but possess the shortest attention spans. As the future of consumerism is in their hands, it’s time to reflect on the best creative strategies for connecting with Millennials and Gen Z consumers.

THE NEW RULES OF (MULTI-CHANNEL) CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: HANDBOOK FOR GROWTH MARKETERS

Winning CX will come from Brands who can balance relevance, consistency and convenience to drive engagement. The kind of engagement that drives optimal customer lifetime value and real business impact.

Taking Advantage of Diminishing Attention Spans

Both Millennials and Gen Z have infamously short attention spans and lose interest quickly. Gone are the days of being able to repurpose a 30-second television ad into 100 digital formats; these savvy consumers will see right through it. Instead, focus on the value exchange and see the world through their eyes in that exact moment. Instead of focusing on what you want to tell them, think from their perspective and ask the question they are: “what’s going to benefit me right now?” That’s the 6-second space in which the content that clicks with them lives. Sometimes, this content won’t ladder up to an overarching campaign plan, but if it gets them to stop scrolling, you’ve created something that matters to them at that moment—you’ve caught their attention.

Targeting Millennials and Gen Z at Once

While these groups have many distinct differences, certain marketing techniques have proven successful across these generations. What resonates above all else is brand authenticity. They want to see brands care about social, political, and economic causes, but only in relevant ways. Members of these generations are difficult to fool and can sniff out any whiff of inauthenticity. For example, a clothing company speaking up and taking action against international labor laws would likely resonate—a toothpaste company forming a campaign around the #MeToo movement would likely flounder. They want to engage with purpose-driven companies, but only when that purpose is logical and not just for show.

Where the Generations Deviate

Millennials are incredibly brand loyal but difficult to reach. They value their privacy (increasingly more so), with more than half of them applying an ad blocking-filter to their browsers. This means that the moments you do interact with them have to be deeply impactful with the ultimate goal of becoming one of the brands to which they are loyal. To become one of their chosen brands, your interactions with them should stay casual, responsive, and offer value—a single coupon can go a long way. And with $1.3 trillion in annual buying power, working for their loyalty clearly pays off.

For Gen Z, standing out from the crowd is the biggest challenge with the biggest payoff. Gen Z has been immersed in technology and social media from day one. Their mobile devices have become an appendage, and they favor social networks like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat over Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. In order to actually stand out from the constant stream of content offered to both of these generations, brands need to create specific content for each destination. While they care deeply about the world around them, sometimes invoking the latest news or memes will make you blend into the background; sometimes, it’s the silly, irreverent ads that will resonate the most, giving them a break from the serious issues they spend much of their time thinking about.

As the ways in which Millennials and Gen Z process and accept information become clearer, marketing and creative strategies will have to reflect this new found information, changing and adapting over time. While these challenges can intimidate, they offer marketers the greatest chance to push boundaries and redefine creative to fit the modern world and the modern consumer.

Serving as Undertone’s Director of Strategic Marketing, Samantha Lopez is a combination of professional storyteller and strategist. During her time at Undertone, she has focused on crafting agency and brand digital ad strategy, as well as sculpting Undertone’s vision and positioning in the marketplace. After her time spent working at major media agencies, she came to Undertone, bringing her agency mindset to the ever-changing mar-tech space.

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